Socrates' Ancestor: An Essay on Architectural Beginnings

By Indra Kagis McEwen

Book Overview

Socrates' Ancestor is a rich and poetic exploration of architectural beginnings and the dawn of Western philosophy in preclassical Greece. Architecture precedes philosophy, McEwen argues, and it was here, in the archaic Greek polis, that Western architecture became the cradle of Western thought. McEwen's appreciation of the early Greek understanding of the indissolubility of craft and community yields new insight into such issues as orthogonal planning and the appearance of the encompassing colonnade - the ptera or wings - that made Greek temples Greek.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262132923
• ISBN13: 9780262132923
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant and thought provoking essay

This is a tour-de-force of interpretation, which asks us to rethink the meaning of architecture. McEwen, with grace, simplicity, and style, seeks to disclose another way of knowing "kosmos" than through fixed ideas and concepts. Unraveling the Anaximander fragment, he argues for the "well-made" as a "making visible" of divine order, shedding new light on what "theory" really meant. This book nourishes the soul and reminds us why we should not give up learning how to look carefully. A splendidly "well made" piece of thinking and writing in itself.